The Hex — авторская видеоигра Дэниела Маллинса, вышедшая в 2018-м году. Маллинс достаточно громко заявил о себе в инди-мире своим первым проектом, Pony Island, где показал свой нестандартный подход к созданию видеоигр. The Hex — его вторая игра, частично связанная как с Pony Island, так и со следующей игрой Inscryption. The Hex повествует о… трудно сказать о чём, ведь главный принцип Маллинса — «мои игры совсем не то, чем кажутся».
Сюжет[править]
В тёмном, забытом уголке видеоигровой вселенной бушует буря. Шесть персонажей спрятались от грозы в таверне «Шесть кружек». Бармену поступает тревожный звонок — кто-то из его постояльцев собирается совершить убийство. Назревает атмосфера классического английского детектива… которая быстро пропадает, потому что игра вообще не об этом.
В попытке выяснить тайну грядущего убийства, игроку предстоит поближе познакомиться с персонажами провалившихся франшиз. А также узнать побольше об играх, где они были героями, и выяснить, как они дошли до жизни такой. Игроку расскажут печальные истории падения франшиз и покажут самые разные способы загубить хорошие многообещающие проекты, хотя в целом игра вообще не об этом.
Тогда о чём? А о том, что искусственно созданная личность — это именно личность, и виртуальная жизнь не перестаёт быть жизнью.
Постояльцы таверны[править]
Слева направо — Раст, Лазарь, Хорёк, Бармен, ???, Шандрель, Брайс.
- Супер Малыш Хорёк — быстрый как Соник, прыгучий как Марио. СМХ был персонажем простенького платформера, состряпанного 12-летним Лайонелом Сниллом. Однако эта по-детски наивная простота, а так же безупречное техническое исполнение, очень понравились игрокам, что хорошо видно по отзывам в Steam. «Как мило, словно в детство вернулся!» Незамысловатая игра отлично поднимала настроение, и все полюбили Супер Малыша Хорька и его друга-крота, мистера Шрюда.
- Супер Малыш Хорёк пал жертвой опухания сиквелов. В продолжении «Улётная Трасса» Лайонел добавил новые игровые механики, а так же, став подростком, изменил стилистику на более брутальную. СМХ надел крутые тёмные очки и джинсы, начал слушать рок и научился драться как Чак Норрис. Игрокам это не слишком понравилось, дескать, нет уже того детского очарования, но всё же играбельно. Ну а дальше… Лайонел продал права на СМХ компании GameFuna, и те состряпали «Super Redux» — халтурное забагованное говно. Хорёк стал медленным, визуальный стиль стал унылым, а мистера Шрюда вообще выкинули на мороз. СМХ утонул в болоте негативных отзывов.
- Шеф Брайс — персонаж аркады «Готовим с бабулей», купленный для файтинга «Смертельная Арена Х». Быть бойцом он вообще не хотел, ему бы на кухню печь пироги вместе с бабушкой, но в «Арену» запихивают вообще кого попало из всех франшиз подряд. Делать нечего, Брайс быстро осваивает приёмы рукопашного боя и становится крутым бойцом, получая всё новые и новые усиления в каждом патче.
- Файтинг должен быть сбалансированным. После всех балансных патчей Брайс оказался слишком силён. Он в лёгкую одолевал любых противников. Когда Брайс, невзирая на ослабляющие патчи, одолел противника с наивысшим рейтингом, его признали чересчур имбовым. В итоге разработчики вырезали его из игры, чего Брайс в общем-то и добивался, чтобы вернуться к бабушке в кулинарную аркаду. Но когда GameFuna приобрела права на сиквел, Брайса решили вернуть. И когда Брайс случайно ударил мирного NPC, от повара отказались вообще все издатели.
- Шандрель Стормблейз — эльфийка 80-го уровня, чародейка из серии JRPG «Тайны Легендарии». Благополучию сказочной страны угрожает Тёмный Лорд Валламир, и отважная эльфийская волшебница должна добыть три Сферы Могущества, чтобы… ну вы поняли, сто раз уже такое видели. Шандрель тоже сто раз уже это видела. Её настолько задолбало постоянно спасать Легендарию, что она встаёт на сторону Валламира, которому тоже это всё надоело. Всё равно франшизу продолжат ещё на 20 игр, какая разница? Так что пусть зло победит хотя бы разок.
- На какие ещё 20 игр? Зрители, смотревшие релизный стрим «Легендарии» на Твиче, были в шоке от такой развязки и беспощадно материли разработчиков в чате, а отзывы в Стиме были крайне отрицательными. Развязка истории была общепризнанно неприемлемой, фанаты сочли это попранием пусть и клишированных, но всё же канонов. Серия «Тайны Легендарии» на этом закончилась. Модельку рыцаря Лазаря, верного спутника эльфийки, геймдизайнеры решили использовать для новой игры «Жестокая Галактика». А сама Шандрель, до этого слившая Брайсу в «Смертельной Арене», осталась не у дел. В качестве наказания ей в голову запихнули Валламира и выкинули на мороз.
- Раст МакКлейн — постапокалиптический странник из пошаговой тактики «Мир Пустошей», бороздивший радиоактивный мир со своим мутировавшим сыном Рокки в поисках «кэша» — тайного убежища с огромным запасом продовольствия. Но в конце пути Раст обнаружил лишь пустое место — разработчики забросили игру, и «Мир Пустошей» так и не вышел из раннего доступа. Игру слили в сеть, и моддеры начали доделывать её на свой лад. А Раст с сыном от нечего делать пошли изучать обновлённую пустошь.
- Вы и сами знаете, что от этих моддеров можно ждать любой ерунды. Пришельцы, магия, розовые пони, дисбаланс, безграмотные тексты… Эта недоигра стала ещё неиграбельнее, и непроходима без читов. И ни один моддер так и не сделал финальное убежище, к которому так стремился Раст. В итоге «Мир Пустошей» был доломан окончательно, Рокки исчез из файлов, а Раст сошёл с ума. Он вообще не понимает, что он всего лишь игровой персонаж.
- Лазарь Близ — бравый космодесантник из «Жестокой Галактики 2», закалённый в сотнях сражений против пришельцев. Когда-то он был простым рыцарем из «Легендарии», теперь перевели в кооперативную игру в духе Alien Swarm и Hotline Miami. Отряд их бравых космодесантников направляется в логово пришельцев, чтобы похитить Артефакт. Лазарь прекрасно справляется с заданием, хоть и не скрывает своей тоски по старым временам, когда он был персонажем RPG.
- Рассказать, за что был списан Лазарь, невозможно без тяжёлых спойлеров. Но если без них — в «Галактику» скидывают персонажей из отменённых франшиз, чтобы не выбрасывать концепты. Сама же «Галактика» была вполне хорошей игрой, но пала жертвой корпоративных разборок и саботажа программистов.
- ??? — непрорисованный некто, у которого есть текстуры только рук и ног. Но ему больше и не нужно, ведь он персонаж игры от первого лица. Игра называлась «Прогулка», и поначалу была просто симулятором ходьбы, но Лайонел Снилл решил сделать из неё свою исповедь. Здесь он рассказывает, как он создавал вышеперечисленные игры, с какими трудностями сталкивался, и почему они провалились.
- Лайонел — самовлюблённый мудак. Он прекрасно овладел искусством винить во всём других. Он не умеет прислушиваться к чужому мнению — конечно, чужое мнение часто бывает идиотским, но и собвственное мнение от этого не застраховано. Он не способен относиться по-человечески ни к своим сотрудникам, ни к своим персонажам. И эта «исповедь» — полная ерунда. Лайонел не способен быть честным даже с самим собой.
- И наконец, Бармен. Немощный старичок в инвалидной коляске. Но из какой он игры и что с ним случилось — нельзя говорить ни в коем случае, тут и так уже наспойлерено.
Прочие персонажи[править]
- Лайонел Снилл — геймдизайнер, создатель всех вышеуказанных игр (кроме той, что про готовку с бабулей). Лично появляется только в самом конце, но набить ему морду хочется с самого начала. В роли Лайонела снялся сам автор, Дэниел Маллинс.
- Т. Ирвинг — администратор отдела регуляции игровых персонажей. Его неестественно синяя рожа намекает, что он не человек. Тем более, что он появляется только внутри игр, и пару раз обращается к игроку. Это продвинутый искусственный интеллект, исполняющий волю Лайонела в виртуальном мире. В Inscryption тоже упоминается «синий человек с синей пирамидой».
- Садо — трудно сказать, кто она, ведь создал её не Лайонел, а его подруга, с которой он поссорился. Садо была создана из конгломерата багов, и способна изувечить любой код, что делает её опаснейшей сущностью виртуальной вселенной.
Что тут есть?[править]
- Амнезия — высмеивается в «Тайнах Легендарии». Шандрель не хочет проходить туториал, но игроку-то надо.
— Жаль, что ты даже своё имя не помнишь.
— Меня зовут Шандрель.
— Может, лучше дашь игроку выбрать имя?
— Нет, меня зовут Шандрель, и у меня нет амнезии.
— Давай я покажу, как надо сражаться, а то ты не помнишь!
— Я прекрасно знаю, как сраж…
— Кстати, у тебя есть магические способности!— Да неужели?!
Моджи опять душнит - Багоюзерство — персонажи «Тайн Легендарии» знают о многих недоработках из прошлых частей. «Давай пойдём через дырку в текстурах, а то я не хочу гриндить кобольдов». «Ты же помнишь, где лежат забагованные анхи?». Если игрок воспользуется этими багами, чатик на Твиче начнёт бунтовать — «фуу, читер!»
- Внезапная смена геймплея — вполне ожидаемо, но иногда геймплей меняется внутри игры… ну той, которая внутри этой игры. Например, когда Лазарь вспоминает своё фэнтезийное прошлое, или когда Раст натыкается на совершенно идиотские моды.
- Говорит стихами — Сфинкс.
- Досрочная концовка — тот самый момент, когда в баре совершается долгожданное убийство. Есть и вторая досрочная, если завершить «Прогулку» так, как этого хочет Лайонел Снилл.
- Закадровый штурман — «Тайны Легендарии» стримится на Twitch, а кто самый главный закадровый штурман на стримах? «Качай ману! Нах тебе это фуфло? Иди направо!» Чат постоянно спойлерит, бэкситит и советует. Появился кодовый замок? Сфинкс задал трудную загадку? Стример тупой, чатик спешит на помощь!
- Злобный клоун — Садо.
- Код Konami — в The Hex можно сломать любую игру. Код Konami ломает «Смертельную Арену».
- Кот — умник — волшебная кошка Катарина. Впервые встречается в СМХ, позднее можно найти её в секретках. А ещё она дико спойлерит.
- Крутой повар — шеф Брайс. Он способен испечь самый вкусный пирог и надрать самую крепкую задницу.
- Маратель канона — компания GameFuna вообще и Лайонел Снилл в частности. И Ирвинг.
- Матом разговаривает — один из противников «Смертельной Арены», гоповатый Алли-Гад’ор. Причём ругательства запиканы, несмотря на отсутствие озвучки.
- Мешанина жанров — персонажи пришли из очень разных игр — тут и файтинг, и JRPG, и тактика, и платформер… Нашлось место даже для симулятора свиданий.
- Несовместимая с жизнью трусость — в «Легендарии» можно встретить уборщика в храме, которому хочется побывать в другой игре. А именно в «Жестокой Галактике». Его мечта сбывается, но к бою с космической саранчой этот вчерашний воин швабры и ведра оказывается совершенно не готов. Командир расстреливает этот позор космодесанта на месте.
- Ой, бл… — тот момент, когда Брайс хотел врезать Ирвингу, но промазал. «Ах да, чуть не забыл — К. О.!!!»
- Персонаж-загадка — тот коротышка в капюшоне, шныряющий в тёмных углах таверны. Правда о нём откроется лишь в финале, да и ту легко не заметить.
- Персонаж-призрак — Лайонел Снилл и его бывшая подруга Карла.
- Персонаж против автора — вся суть. Созданный тобою персонаж — не болванчик, а личность, которую ты, разработчик, наделил жизнью. Уважай своего персонажа. Лайонел, в отличие от своей подруги Карлы, этого так и не понял.
- Психоделичная босс-арена — Садо в других местах и не сражается.
- Разрушение четвёртой стены — регулярно. Персонажи в курсе, что они персонажи, так что существование игрока для них не секрет.
- Секретка — их тут едва ли не больше, чем основного контента.
- Секретный босс — доппельгангер из «Легендарии». Прячется за храмом. Почему-то зовётся минибоссом, хотя он мощнее дракона раз в десять.
- Снайперская дуэль — встретится такой момент в «Жестокой Галактике».
- Сцена после титров — после истинной концовки. Садо вырвалась в реальный мир.
- Фичекат — рыбалка в «Легендарии». Программистка несколько месяцев работала над этой фичей, но из-за босса Кракена её пришлось вырезать. Но рыбалка всё равно там есть в виде секретки.
- Баны персонажей в «Смертельной Арене». Брайс, узнав о них, сам себя зафичекатил.
- Чит-код — «Мир Пустошей» фактически вынуждает игрока использовать чит-коды. Моддеры давно поломали баланс в угоду хардкору. В статье на «Игросыщиках» так прямо и написано — играть без читов невозможно.
- Четвёртая стена тебя не спасёт — возможно, один из лучших примеров тропа в видеоиграх, да ещё и в виде тройного комбо.
[изменить]
Инди-игры
Стратегии Aurora • DEFCON • Creeper World… Платформеры Cuphead • Dust: An Elysian Tail • eversion • GRIS • Spelunky Ролевые Darkest Dungeon • Dead in Vinland • Divinity (Original Sin • Original Sin II) • LISA RPG • Lobotomy Corporation (Library of Ruina) • Pathfinder: Kingmaker (Wrath of the Righteous) • Pillars of Eternity (Deadfire) • Supergiant Games (Bastion • Transistor • Hades) • Torment: Tides of Numenera • Undertale (Deltarune) • Wasteland 2 • Чёрная книга
Инди-JRPG: Freebird Games (A Bird Story • Finding Paradise • To the Moon) • Ib • Kirisame ga Furu Mori • Lydia (Aria’s Story • Midnight Train) • Mad Father • Misao • Miwashiba (LiEat • 1bitHeart • Alicemare) • Okegom (Mogeko Castle • The Gray Garden • Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea) • Portrain (Asadoke no Majo • Sai no Kawara to Ningyo Miko) The Witch’s House • Yume Nikki • …Шутеры Ruiner • Hotline Miami • Postal • Superhot • FAR: Lone Sails• …
Terrordrome — файтингКвесты 35MM • J.U.L.I.A.: Among the Stars • Machinarium • Игры от Scriptwelder (Deep Sleep Trilogy • Серия Don’t Escape) • Submachine • … Политические симуляторы Китай: Наследие Мао • Кризис в Кремле • Остальгия: Берлинская стена ?? Abobo’s Big Adventure • Among Us • Baldi’s Basics in Education and Learning • Demonophobia • Inscryption • Five Nights at Freddy’s • Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice • Helltaker • Henry Stickmin • Kindergarten • Lone Survivor • Loop Hero • Minecraft • My Lovely Daughter • Neverending Nightmares • Papers, Please • Party Hard • Peace, Death! • Please Don’t Touch Anything • SCP: Containment Breach • Slay the Spire • Slime Rancher • Stardew Valley • Subnautica (Below Zero) • Terraria • The Hex • The Path • Touhou Project • Yandere Simulator • Человеколось ← Видеоигры
A full in-depth guide how to get all achievements in The Hex.
Contents
- Story Achievements
- No Thanks, Mr. Shrewd!
- 360 No Scope
- M0RE_FRI#NDLY(C0NTENT)
- Insert Coin, Ice Cold
Story Achievements
- Childhood Ruined
- Overdone
- Lousy Tenant
- Rocky Road
- Pyrrhic Victory
- That Was Lionel Snill
- The Hex
Acheieve these just by playing through each of the six character’s memory sections, in order. This is done by just playing through the game normally.
No Thanks, Mr. Shrewd!
This one is pretty simple. Just use triple jumps and the just-out of frame clouds and platforms to never fall to your death or land on any of the spikes. You get the achievement by completing all Weasel Kid levels without handicap.
360 No Scope
Perform a 360 degree turn and shoot, hitting an enemy, without using the scope. This achievement is super easy if you do it at your first chance possible. Shoot the two locks on the door to the sniper section, then open the door. The first enemy waiting behind the door should be the easiest to 360 no scope.
M0RE_FRI#NDLY(C0NTENT)
During Rust’s chapter, when you get access to the map with the gated pathway, there will be an upgrade in a shop with a “Ticket.” If you use your money to buy the useless ticket, go back to the gate with the blocked off path and move to the end of the route. You get the achievement when you get to the end of the path and change the map screen.
Insert Coin, Ice Cold
For Insert Coin, you need to open one of the three vending machines in the Six Pint Inn. But, assuming you are trying to complete the game, you need all 30 quarters hidden around the Inn to open all three machines. You get the achievement when you open whichever your third vending machine is.
There are three denominations of price, a small, medium, and large priced machine. You can attempt to collect all the coins steadily throughout the game, or once you control ???, you can pick up all 30 before entering his memory.
A full in-depth guide how to get all achievements in The Hex.
Story Achievements
- Childhood Ruined
- Overdone
- Lousy Tenant
- Rocky Road
- Pyrrhic Victory
- That Was Lionel Snill
- The Hex
Acheieve these just by playing through each of the six character’s memory sections, in order. This is done by just playing through the game normally.
No Thanks, Mr. Shrewd!
This one is pretty simple. Just use triple jumps and the just-out of frame clouds and platforms to never fall to your death or land on any of the spikes. You get the achievement by completing all Weasel Kid levels without handicap.
360 No Scope
Perform a 360 degree turn and shoot, hitting an enemy, without using the scope. This achievement is super easy if you do it at your first chance possible. Shoot the two locks on the door to the sniper section, then open the door. The first enemy waiting behind the door should be the easiest to 360 no scope.
M0RE_FRI#NDLY(C0NTENT)
During Rust’s chapter, when you get access to the map with the gated pathway, there will be an upgrade in a shop with a «Ticket.» If you use your money to buy the useless ticket, go back to the gate with the blocked off path and move to the end of the route. You get the achievement when you get to the end of the path and change the map screen.
Insert Coin, Ice Cold
For Insert Coin, you need to open one of the three vending machines in the Six Pint Inn. But, assuming you are trying to complete the game, you need all 30 quarters hidden around the Inn to open all three machines. You get the achievement when you open whichever your third vending machine is.
There are three denominations of price, a small, medium, and large priced machine. You can attempt to collect all the coins steadily throughout the game, or once you control ???, you can pick up all 30 before entering his memory.
Source: https://gameplay.tips/guides/3229-the-hex.html
More The Hex guilds
Due to the nature of this game, spoilers are abound.
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Patrons and Staff of the Six Pint Inn
General (Unmarked Spoilers)
The main characters of the game, who are staying at the Six Pint Inn. Each of them is from a different video game franchise created by Lionel Snill, and they are all refugees who fled after their respective franchises were ruined in some way. According to the bartender, one of them is plotting a murder.
- Ensemble Cast: Each of them gets a single chapter to themselves and none of them is really the definitive protagonist.
- Everybody Did It: The story begins with six video game character together at an inn, and the bartender being informed that one of them will commit a murder. Turns out that every single character at the inn, including other NPCs and the bartender himself (who is the mastermind), need the player‘s help to murder their own creator, since each one of them has a reason to be angry with him, e.g. the platform mascot had his franchise sold to a corporation that proceeded to run it into the ground, the cooking game character was forced into a fighting game franchise away from his loving grandmother, the character from a strategy game found himself in a world that had been abandoned and taken over by modders, the bartender had his game deleted from existence, and such.
- Villain Protagonist: While most of them were not this in their in-universe games, all of them become complicit in a revenge plot to kill their creator and any NPCs who stand in their way. Chandrelle and Lazarus in particular spend Chapter 3 helping Dark Lord Vallamir Take Over the World, while Lazarus is willing, under orders from Reggie, to unleash the dangerous Sado on the game world just to provide a distraction.
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: All of them used to be normal game protagonists content to go about their days, until Lionel�s decisions messed with their lives. So they all got together and launched a revenge plot against Lionel and his NPC creations.
Weasel Kid
The main character of Super Weasel Kid, a notoriously easy platformer that everyone loved. As his series continued on, however, that love was eventually used up, and he became a jaded has-been.
- Cool Shades: As a parody of all the snarky and rebellious anthropomorphic animals featuring in platformers trying to be �cool and edgy�, he�s of course got a pair.
- Darker and Edgier: Super Weasel Kid: Radical Road was this. There’s combat mechanics, the color palette is darker and there’s kind of a gritty «Totally Radical» element to the setting.
- Everyone Has Standards: When playing as Rust, he asks Weasel Kid if he ever shot the groondas in his game. Weasel Kid thinks you’d have to be «pretty sick» to shoot them.
- Expy: The history of his franchise is reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog while his style of dress in the present day draws similarities to Crash Bandicoot, two Funny Animal platforming mascots.
- Funny Animal: Presumably he’s a weasel.
- In a Single Bound: His jumping ability is his only real talent, as noted by other characters.
- Mascot with Attitude: When his ego grows bigger during Radical Road, he gains a bit of an attitude.
- Revenge: For the death of Mr. Shrewd, and selling his franchise.
- Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: He implies that he’s engaged in underage drinking in a conversation.
- Used to Be a Sweet Kid: In his first game, before his series deteriorated with each passing game.
Bryce
«I’m from a cooking game. I’m no killer.»
A fighter from Combat Arena X, although he claims to actually be a cook. He works at the Six Pint Inn as the chef.
- Creator’s Pet: In-Universe, Lionel bought him from the original developer because he really liked Bryce and wanted him in his fighting game. Lionel even gave Bryce multiple power ups just so he can stand up to future challengers.
- Gentle Giant: Bryce may be a musclebound giant of a man, and several characters in the Inn suspect him of being a potential killer, but he ultimately just wants to bake.
- Guest Fighter: Deconstructed. Bryce is actually a character from a cooking game called Cooking Granny; Lionel bought out his game and then added him into Combat Arena X, but he’s very much not happy about being in a Fighting Game.
- Revenge: He wants payback for his game being bought out by Lionel, Irving tricking him into killing Cooking Granny, and being forced into being a member of a fighting game.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The only time he’s shown in a shirt is during the Cooking Granny segment.
- Yank the Dog’s Chain: Even when he got himself banned, Irving came back to force Bryce into being a part of Combat Arena X2, and then egged him into attacking — and possibly killing — Granny. Not only did this cancel the Cooking Granny franchise entirely, Combat Arena X continued to have a successful franchise with or without Bryce on its roster.
Chandrelle Stormblaze
«I’m a high level sorceress. Watch yourself, kid.»
Originally one of two female characters placed in Combat Arena X, she got herself banned by being too powerful, but was later reused as the main character of the Zelda-like Secrets of Legendaria franchise. Now she seeks to end her franchise, by any means necessary.
- Amnesiac Hero: Defied. Moji says she is one, but Chandrelle refuses to play along with the game’s story.
- Black Mage: She has only one spell that isn’t an offensive attack.
- Black Magic: She’s a sorceress, after all. In Secret of Legendaria, she gains access to powerful offensive magic after reading Vallamir’s book.
- Cast from Hit Points: Her Blood Pact spell regenerates some mana, but at the cost of HP.
- Demonic Possession: As punishment for causing Secrets of Legendaria to bomb, Irving makes Vallamir live inside her head.
- I Die Free: Deletion or being banished to the void would still leave her freedom intact, from her perspective.
- Face�Heel Turn: From the perspective of the player and streaming audience of Secrets of Legendaria, Chandrelle is this, having helped Vallamir succeed in his evil plans. In reality, she already hated being a protagonist and «end of the world» is really «end of employment in the franchise» for all the characters.
- Power Floats: Floats during combat.
- Revenge: Wants payback on Lionel for continuing her existence, even after she tried to have herself banned, and then brought back as the protagonist of her own franchise. Even when she got it cancelled, Gameworks punished her by having the Big Bad of her franchise live in her head.
- Straw Nihilist: Downplayed; she doesn’t want to continue her existence if it means continued sufferance at the hands of players, to the point that she lets her Big Bad win and ruin her franchise before it can ever take off.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: She clearly does not like Vallamir, but she reluctantly works with him as he’s the only one who can help her end the Secrets of Legendaria franchise.
Rust McClain
An old, unhinged man who is not quite aware that he is a character from Waste World, a post-apocalyptic tactics game.
- Audience? What Audience?: He is not aware that he’s a video game character, possibly due to the unfinished nature of his game.
- Driven to Madness: Due to his game’s unfinished state, as well as both modders and Sado screwing with the code, he snaps under the stress of Hardcore Mode.
- Glass Cannon: Rust can dish out damage, but he can’t take it very well. He deals much more damage than Rocky, but he needs to stay away from enemies or they’ll kill him in one or two hits.
- In the Hood: He wears a hood. Waste World shows him without it until the alien mind-control device is strapped to his head. From then on, he is seen wearing his signature hood.
- Irony: The most overtly suspicious of the characters in the bar and repeatedly referred to as such, and easily the one who has done the least wrong.
- Kick the Dog: Sado kills Rocky and gives him false hope that he’s still alive just to bring him down further.
- Old Master: Has survived, and even thrived, into old age in the Death World setting of Waste World.
- Papa Wolf: Cares deeply for his mutant son, Rocky, and will do anything to protect him. The horrifying way he dies, and Hardcore Mod afterwards, break him pretty much immediately.
- Token Good Teammate: The only playable character who isn’t out for Revenge, even after being let into the loop on performing the Hex. He seems genuinely led to believe it’ll somehow bring his son back.
- Verbal Tic: He speaks with a stutter. Waste World shows he didn’t speak like this early on, as his Sanity Slippage caused it.
Lazarus Bleeze
A space marine from the Vicious Galaxy series, he seems to know several of the other patrons at the Six Pint Inn.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is a light green. Back during Secrets of Legendaria, he had normal skin.
- Genre Shift: He was originally a knight in Secrets of Legendaria; when Chandrelle destroyed that franchise, he was punished for helping her by becoming the protagonist of Vicious Galaxy instead.
- Power Armor: Has this both in Secrets of Legendaria and in Vicious Galaxy. In Secrets of Legendaria, it�s a traditional silver colour, befitting a knight, while in Vicious Galaxy, It�s coloured a combo of turquoise blue and yellow.
- Revenge: For making Irving throw him into the Vicious Galaxy series, which badly traumatized him.
- Red Herring: His murder of Irving is not the crime you’ve been warned about.
- Space Marine: He is the protagonist of the Vicious Galaxy FPS series, where he fights against the aliens of Crypton.
???
«…»
A Featureless Protagonist who served as the main vessel for people to experience Walk, and to hear the commentary of a certain game developer.
- Author Avatar: In-Universe, he’s supposed to be this for Lionel Snill.
- First-Person Ghost: In-Universe, since they are supposed to be a Featureless Protagonist of the first person puzzle game, only their hands are textured, with the rest of their body being a pitch-black silhouette due to the fact that texturing anything other than hands was not necessary.
- My Name Is ???: Their name is literally «???». However, the Waste World segment of Walk reveals his name is Lionel.
- No Name Given: Due to just being a Featureless Protagonist, he doesn’t even have a name. The Waste World section however, reveals he does has a name — it’s Lionel, after his creator.
- Revenge: Presumably, for being just a vessel for people to hear Lionel’s lies and complaining and not even having a mouth.
- Walking Spoiler: He doesn�t have much of a role in the story until the Walk section, the big Wham Episode of the game.
The Bartender (Unmarked Spoilers)
Reginald/Rootbeer Reggie
The wheelchair-bound bartender of the Six Pint Inn. He’s actually Reginald, aka Rootbeer Reggie, a Tapper ripoff and the true first game Lionel ever made. He’s the mastermind behind everything, seeking revenge against his creator Lionel for destroying his game and having Irving cripple him out of not letting anyone know about him.
- Affably Evil: When opening the Hex, he’s cordial when talking to the player despite being about to murder his own creator and hopes they enjoyed the events of the game. He also gives them a chance to back out once Lazarus shoots Irving.
- The Bad Guy Wins: He successfully carries out his plan to kill Lionel.
- Big Bad Ensemble: He masterminds the events of the present day in order to get his revenge on Lionel Snill, his creator who ruined the lives of him, his six patrons, and his workers, while opposing and using Sado to carry out his plan.
- Demoted to Extra: He turns up as a playing card in Leshy’s deck in Inscryption.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: The story opens with the bartender receiving a phone call warning that one of his six patrons is plotting a murder. In the end, the murderer turns out to be everyone, with the mastermind and the one who does the deed being the bartender himself, who is indicated to have faked the phone call to gain the interest of the player and manipulate them into helping with the murder.
- Evil Cripple: He rolls around in a wheelchair and masterminds a plot to get revenge on the people who crippled him, no matter how many NPCs have to die in the process.
- Manipulative Bastard: The entirety of the game is him manipulating the player into helping him reach the real world and kill Lionel.
- Old Shame: In-Universe, he’s this to Lionel — the game was janky, and Reggie was the only thing in it that Lionel actually liked. Before releasing Super Weasel Kid, Lionel had him and his game buried, wanting to seem like a young prodigy and not let Rootbeer Reggie mar his reputation.
- Revenge: For Lionel burying his game and having Irving cripple him.
- Walking Spoiler: Reggie’s nature as another one of Lionel’s protagonists, let alone another game protagonist at all, isn’t revealed until nearly the end of the game.
- Write Who You Know: In-Universe, Reggie’s appearance was based off Lionel’s grandfather.
Jeremiah (Unmarked Spoilers)
A mysterious hooded figure who shows up in every chapter to comment on the protagonists’ plight. He can also be seen sneaking around the Six Pint Inn. It turns out that he is the janitor, originating from Rootbeer Reggie, who helps his boss Reginald carry out his plan to kill Lionel and destroy The Gameworks.
- Affably Evil: He is The Dragon to Reggie but is very nice to the other characters despite being willing to kill one of them for cowardice.
- The Dragon: He handles all the fieldwork assigned by Reggie and gathers the game characters at his Inn to advance his revenge plot.
- In the Hood: For the first four chapters, he is only seen as a mysterious hooded figure. He removes it at the end of the fourth chapter and only puts it on for a brief part of the final one.
- Token Heroic Orc: Fitting enough, he looks like one of the Groondas that Super Weasel Kid and Lazarus face under the hood.
Other Game Characters
Admin T. Irving
The representative of the Gameworks, who is in charge of making sure the games run smoothly. He’s got bad blood with Bryce, Chandrelle and Lazarus.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is a dark blue.
- Asshole Victim: He is nothing but a pain and Mean Boss to the game characters who responds to any challenge to his authority with a savage beatdown (in particular, crippling Reginald for the rest of his life) and takes a perverse enjoyment in making his employees miserable, so when he is shot dead by Lazarus, none of the characters express any sympathy, with Chandrelle outright saying he deserved it.
- Blood Knight: He really seems to love fist-fighting, if his reactions to Bryce and Chandrelle are anything to go by.
- Cool Shades: He has a triangular pair of them.
- The Dragon: He’s this to Lionel. Whether his orders are to cripple Reginald and bury his game or to return Bryce to the next Combat Arena game, he carries them out without question.
- Establishing Character Moment: He is first seen training Bryce to be a fighting game character against his will, disregarding his desire to stay in his cooking game. Then, when Bryce unintentionally hits him, he retaliated by beating up Bryce until he is knocked down. This shows him as a brutal thug who resorts to violence to get what he wants.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: He has a prominent scar on the bridge of his nose to make him look like even more of a thug.
- Hate Sink: Considering how badly he treated the other characters, no one sheds a tear for him when he dies.
- The Heavy: He’s the most direct threat to the patrons, even with him answering to Lionel— due to Lionel being a programmer in the real world, Irving enacts his changes and decisions towards the game characters personally. And he doesn’t always see eye-to-eye with Lionel, either.
- Just Following Orders: The reason he gives to Reginald for shutting down his game and crippling him, even though only the former was actually his order.
Lionel wants this.
- Kick the Dog: At the end of the Combat Arena X chapter, when Chef Bryce accidentally hits and possibly kills his own beloved grandma, Irving has the gall to joke about it just to rub it in Bryce‘s face.
- Killed Off for Real: Lazarus shoots him at the end of his chapter.
- Mean Boss: He only cares for doing what his superior Lionel tells him, and doesn’t care what the game characters think of it. So he bullies them into compliance, doing things like forcing Cooking Granny‘s Bryce into a fighting game when he clearly doesn’t want to be there.
- More Despicable Minion: Lionel, his boss, is the one who destroyed the various game franchises seen and the lives of the characters, but he had no idea that they were sentient beings, is treated sympathetically for all his faults, and regrets his actions by the end. Irving is just a thug who gleefully carries out his orders, usually by beating someone up, and takes pleasure in screwing over the characters any way he can. Furthermore, unlike Lionel, he knows full well that his victims are sentient beings and simply doesn’t care.
- My Rules Are Not Your Rules: Like Sado, he can also break the rules in his boss battle. If Chandrelle uses the secret glitch attack against him which crashes the game, then the next time it boots up it will be removed. Also, trying to steal his moves will replace your with two moves titled «Stealing My Moves», «Are You?», the former of which is just one of your moves and the latter of which «does nothing. Like absolutely nothing». And then he turns Chandrelle back into her fighting game self, completely forgoing the turn-based combat.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: He was able to capture Sado, of all people.
- The Reveal: Walk reveals he’s actually an assistant for a game toolkit.
- Suddenly Voiced: He’s apparently the announcer of Combat Arena X and can go from Voice Grunting to speaking audibly.
- Villain Has a Point: As much of a Mean Boss and Hate Sink as he is, he does have a point occasionally:
- He tries to stop Chandrelle and Lazarus from destroying the Secrets of Legendaria franchise. He fails, and as he notes, plenty of NPCs have lost their jobs because of their actions. His punishments, while harsh, are not exactly undeserved.
- In the Vicious Galaxy section, he calls out the player on killing countless NPCs within the Gameworks, nothing that these are the characters who make up the games the player likely cherishes so much. Given how brutal the player’s party is shown to be, he’s not wrong that they are legitimately causing catastrophic damage to the game multiverse.
Sado
«Eheh some call me «fighter». But you see I’m more of a performer. And when I fight you become part of the show!»
A mysterious, disturbing lady that first appeared in Combat Fighter X, serving as the Final Boss. She later appears in other games to torment the other patrons.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: It’s left ambiguous how much of her behavior was programmed and how much is an accident. Carla hated Lionel and sabotaged bits of code in the games, but Sado’s malice towards Rust goes beyond simple trolling. There’s also the matter of her possible satanic connection…
- Animal Motifs: Vicious Galaxy gives her a spider motif. She appears to Lazarus with the lower half of a spider, and one of her attacks as a boss involves launching spiders out of her mouth. When the Hex is opened at the end of the game, a tiny spider is seen descending from the ceiling and getting sucked into the portal, which is presumably how she escapes into the real world.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Thanks to Reggie, she has basically succeeded in her goal to destroy Lionel and his games, and has even managed to escape into the real world to cause chaos. By the end of Beneath the Surface, she has also managed to download herself onto the player’s computer.
- Big Bad Ensemble: She is out to cause chaos and destroy the games for her amusement, making her as much a threat to Rootbeer Reggie and Lionel Snill as they are to each other.
- Computer Virus: Sado is actually the avatar of one made by Carla to get back at Lionel for his mistreatment of her.
- Dragon-in-Chief: She carries out Carla’s orders in glitching and ruining Lionel’s games, but goes even farther than Carla intended and is not bound by her orders unlike Irving.
- Enemy Mime: She is dressed like a mime and has the makeup to match, and is a creepy Glitch Entity who torments the protagonists of whatever game she is in. Though unlike most mimes, she is very talkative.
- Final Boss: Her Vicious Galaxy fight is the last boss battle of the game. While a boss enemy is fought in Walk, they’re more of a Post-Final Boss given the lighter plot relevance.
- Glitch Entity: Sado is a deliberately coded version, as she was programmed with Carla’s possibly occult computer virus.
- Godzilla Threshold: Lazarus went through a lot of trouble to release her from prison.
- Graceful Loser: After truly losing to Bryce, she can only applaud as he finishes her off. She also hands over the Hex to Lazarus after he defeats her giant form.
- Humanoid Abomination: Sado is a bit of a doozy. She’s a character that appears in multiple games. Each encounter seems to come right out of nowhere, has a generally uncomfortable atmosphere, and has her completely breaking the rules of the game she’s in. Justified, since it’s implied that she’s a form of malware made by Carla to get back at Lionel; and, from the perspective of the videogame characters, malware like computer viruses could be seen as an Eldritch Abomination.
- Laughably Evil: Despite being a sentient computer virus, she always puts on quite the show every time she appears.
- Leitmotif: Sado’s Theme, a track that utilizes Creepy Circus Music. Her boss battles remix it to include oppressive bit-crushed instrumentals.
- Meaningful Name: While it’s also on display in Combat Arena X, the meaning of Sado’s name is put on full blast in Wasteland, as she kicks off Hardcore Mod by killing off Rocky. She is, 100%, a Sadist. Not to mention that «Sado» is also the anagram of her author’s surname, Carla Dosa.
- Monster Clown: Combat Arena X refers to her as Dark Clown Sado, fitting her clown/jester motifs. The monster part comes from her nature as sentient malware.
- Recurring Boss: You fight her a total of three times throughout the game as the end boss of three chapters, each battle bringing a wildly different, rules-breaking experience. Bryce and Lazarus both defeat her, but Rust doesn’t have the same fate.
- Refugee from TV Land: The ending reveals that Sado managed to escape the game world, as shown when she rises behind Lionel’s corpse.
- Revenge: Not herself, but she’s a computer virus Carla made (with possible help from Satan) as a final FU to Lionel for his ego and mistreatment.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: She’s the prisoner that Lazarus releases in Vicious Galaxy.
- Sizeshifter: Capable of growing to the size of a giant.
- Slasher Smile: If she’s feeling particularly sadistic, she’ll be grinning a toothy grin.
- The Smurfette Principle: She, along with Chandrelle, were created to be this in Combat Fighter X because Carla wanted some female characters.
- SNK Boss: Somewhat of an In-Universe example. She is the Final Boss of Combat Fighter X, but completely disregards the rules of the game- she grows to giant size, uses your health bar as an attack, forces you to only hit her during a specific time frame or you get hit instead, plays a Shell Game in her second phase, and utterly makes a mockery of the rules of competitive play.
- Voice Grunting: Although every character in The Hex uses this, Sado is notable for the fact the sound of her voice grunts tends to change almost every line.
Super Weasel Kid
Alfred Shrewd
«Wait! One more word of advice… I know I’m a bother. You’re special, Kid. But don’t let it get to your head.»
A friendly shrew who was like a father figure to Weasel Kid. Unfortunately for Weasel Kid, he tragically passed once Super Weasel Kid ’09: Super Redux was released.
- The Character Died with Him: A weird In-Universe example. Lionel decided to kill off Mr. Shrewd and replace him with Mr. Squarrel when his pet shrew died in real life.
- Dying to Be Replaced: When he passes away, Mr. Squarrel takes his position instantly.
- The Lost Lenore: To Mr. Squarrel.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: Weasel Kid’s father figure and tutorial guide. He ends up dead.
- Parental Substitute: Towards Weasel Kid. In Walk, Lionel says he imagined his pet shrew and weasel talking to each other like a father and son, and decided to make that the relationship of Mr. Shrewd and Weasel Kid.
- Posthumous Character: He died once Super Weasel Kid ’09 came out, implicitly years before the story of The Hex.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: In-Universe, he was killed off by Lionel when Lionel’s pet shrew died.
- Species Surname: His name is one letter off from «shrew», which is what he is.
- Straight Gay: Obtaining his repaired glasses during Waste World reveals he was in a romantic relationship with Mr. Squarrel.
The Oracle
A cat oracle who appears in all three Super Weasel Kid games to give secrets to the titular protagonist, if he gives her 50 coins each time (except the last one).
Mr. Squarrel
«You listen to me, kid. They hired me to talk, so I’m gonna talk.»
A shifty, cantankerous squirrel who replaces Mr. Shrewd after his death in Super Weasel Kid ’09: Super Redux, and later is seen as a shopkeeper during Secrets of Legendaria. Maybe he had something to do with Mr. Shrewd’s replacement…
- Butt-Monkey: He can get punched by Bryce during Combat Arena X and shot by Rust during Hardcore Mode.
- Good All Along: Mr. Squarrel had nothing to do with Mr. Shrewd’s death. Lionel is the guilty party here.
- Really Fond of Sleeping: Usually taking a nap whenever you see him. This is revealed to have a tragic context. Mr. Squarrel sleeps a lot because sometimes Mr. Shrewd, his deceased lover, is in his dreams.
- Species Surname: His name is one letter off from «squirrel», which is what he implicitly is.
- Straight Gay: He was Mr. Shrewd’s lover before he passed away.
- Sucksessor: Is introduced as Mr. Shrewd’s replacement, and he doesn’t really do his job well, not even caring to give a proper tutorial. Weasel Kid is put off by Mr. Squarrel.
Combat Arena X
Bhakto
The first opponent faced in Combat Arena X. He fights to prove that he can live up to the greatness of his ancestors.
- Warmup Boss: He’s the first opponent of the Combat Arena X section and the first boss of the game as a whole. He is slow and has very telegraphed attacks, so the player can ease themselves into the combat system.
Alley Gator
A foul-mouthed alligator who serves as the second opponent of Combat Arena X.
- Funny Animal: A bipedal, talking, swearing gator who wears a gangster outfit.
- I Am Not Weasel: He gets offended when Bryce calls him a crocodile and furiously states that he’s an alligator.
- Know When to Fold ‘Em: If Bryce defeats him twice, then in the next round he calls off the fight and hands Bryce the victory.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: He’s a very rude and foul-mouthed gator who won’t hesitate to deliver a beating to his opponents.
- Punny Name: His name sounds like alligator, which he is.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Swearing is uncommon in The Hex, but he swears at least once per sentence.
- Sound-Effect Bleep: His Voice Grunting actually bleeps out when he swears with Symbol Swearing.
- Symbol Swearing: He constantly swears, with his profanities censored with symbol swearing.
Steambot Willie
A genderless steam-powered robot who serves as the third opponent of Combat Arena X.
- HP to One: Using their ultimate in Combat Arena X does this… to themself.
Wizzaro
A wizard-themed opponent in Combat Arena X briefly faced by Bryce. He later appears in Waste World being accosted by Rad Rats, and if saved shows up in Vicious Galaxy. He can help translate a cypher left inside a locket hidden in the game.
Rebecha
A green-skinned mechanic from Combat Arena X who gains a bigger role in Secrets of Legendaria. She later appears in Waste World as a saleswoman. She also shows up in Inscryption.
- A Day in the Limelight: You briefly control her during Walk in the Secrets of Legendaria section.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: Green skin, inexplicably.
- And I Must Scream: Comments in Waste World that she doesn’t feel like she’s in control of herself.
- The Cameo: Shows up early in Acts 2 and 3 of Inscryption to repair the literal Broken Bridge and give more info on the four Scrybes.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Her first appearance is in Combat Arena X, but only briefly as part of a montage/Boss Rush of several opponents that Bryce defeats in his quest to become the champion. She then gets speaking roles in Secrets of Legendaria and Waste World and is briefly playable in Walk.
- Leitmotif: Scrap Shop, a low-key, Clock Punk-esque tune.
- Miss Fixit: Offers to fix Mr. Shrewd’s glasses should you bring them to her in Secrets of Legendaria. Waste World shows the fruits of her labors. She also repairs two literal Broken Bridges in Inscryption.
- Verbal Tic: «Woof.»
- Wrench Wench: A female mechanic who uses a wrench to fix and fight.
Secrets of Legendaria
Dark Lord Vallamir
«Hey, girl. How’s it hangin’?»
A laid-back dark lord and the villain of Secrets of Legendaria. He works with Chandrelle to bring about the end of the franchise.
- Arc Villain: He is the villain of the Secrets of Legendaria section as he intends to destroy the realm. Unusually, the protagonist Chandrelle is helping him do it.
- The Bad Guy Wins: Mainly because Chandrelle allows him to do it, he is able to take over the realm of Legendaria and riddle it with glitches. Also, if the player frees him in the final chapter, a secret ending unlocks where he does the same thing to the Six Pint Inn and is free to wreak havoc throughout the universe.
- Beware the Silly Ones: He’s a dark lord who talks like a frat boy. However, he is still a powerful entity with enough power to not only destroy the Secrets of Legendaria franchise, but the entire game world should you let him out of the Six Pint Inn.
- Big Bad: The In-Universe one of Secrets of Legendaria, who wants to destroy the realm.
- Cyclops: Has one eye.
- Demonic Possession: Takes up residence in Chandrelle’s head as a part of her punishment for causing Secrets of Legendaria to bomb.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: The hands he summons (the Minions of Vallamir) have eyes on their palms.
- Gasshole: He farts multiple times and dreads having to be sealed away in a small tube because of how it will smell filled up with his farts.
- Leitmotif: Vallamir’s Theme, a laid-back instrumental track.
- Oh, My Gods!: Characters originating from Secrets of Legendaria sometimes invoke a shortened version of his name («For ‘Mir’s sake!») as an expression of exasperation.
- Post-Final Boss: The Spawn of Vallamir fought in Walk is this for the game as a whole.
- Verbal Tic: «Heheh.»
Moji
The cute tutorial character of Secrets of Legendaria.
- Zero-Effort Boss: He never attacks Chandrelle and is meant to serve as the tutorial boss so you learn the controls.
Junior
Moji’s son. He goes on to become a space marine in Vicious Galaxy.
- Ax-Crazy: In Vicious Galaxy, he really enjoys mowing down enemies, to the point of ordering Lazarus to kill surrendering ones and shorting them himself if he refuses.
- Chekhov’s Gunman: From just another NPC in Secrets of Legendaria to one of the space marines in Vicious Galaxy.
- Face�Heel Turn: He starts off as a cute, innocent critter in Secrets of Legendaria, then joins Reginald’s revenge plot against Lionel in the fifth chapter.
Jay
The janitor and keeper of the temple. He really hates his job and would rather be in Vicious Galaxy. He eventually gets his wish and becomes one of Lazarus’ teammates.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Back in his stint as a janitor, he only ever wanted to become a space marine. He finally gets his wish, only to find that it is not all it was cracked up to be and he finds himself struggling to keep up with the others. So he asks to quit during one mission and gets shot for desertion.
Sweaty Dragon
The first boss of Secrets of Legendaria, who guards the Red Orb of Power in the caverns.
- Warmup Boss: Of the Secrets of Legendaria RPG section as the boss of the caverns and the only boss who does not have a special gimmick.
Jack
The guardian of the temple of the Sphinx. He will only open the way to his queen if he is given 36 ankhs.
- Skippable Boss: If Chandrelle gives him any bugged ankhs and he notices this, he will fight Lazarus in the Vicious Galaxy chapter. But if he believes the ankhs to be genuine, he instead thanks Lazarus for his honesty and lets him go without a fight.
Queen Trish the Sphinx
A Sphinx who lives in the pyramid in the desert and guards the Green Orb of Power. She will only give it to Chandrelle and Lazarus if they can beat her quiz.
- Graceful Loser: If you beat her, she congratulates you and drinks poison, killing herself (actually, exiting from the game- she is later reassigned to a Dating Sim and is just fine).
- Riddling Sphinx: Her boss fight is a game show-like Pop Quiz where she asks you various questions, including riddles like the famous Riddle of the Sphinx.
The Kraken
A fearsome kraken who guards the Blue Orb of Power in the sea.
- Too Kinky to Torture: Apparently, she considers being shot at with bullets to be flirting and arousing.
- The Unfought: Potentially subverted depending on your choices. The Kraken is the guardian of the Blue Orb of Power in Secrets of Legendaria, but the boss of the section winds up being Irving instead while Jeremiah crashes the ship into the Kraken, knocking the beast out and granting you the orb. But in Vicious Galaxy, if you click on all the tentacles in the ship room, you unlock a Secret Boss where you fight the Kraken… in a battle resembling a Dating Sim.
Doppleganger Miniboss
A secret boss hiding underneath the temple.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: This thing has 1000 HP, the same amount as the chapter’s end boss. And a lot more deadly.
- Evil Knockoff: As the name suggests, it can copy all of Chandrelle’s attacks.
- Secret Boss: It hides in a secret area of the temple and gives an item that can replicate any enemy attack.
Waste World
Rocky
Rust’s mutant son, who follows him through the Wastelands. A little intimidating, but he’s a sweet guy.
- Amazing Technicolor Population: His skin is green.
- Audience? What Audience?: Like his papa, he’s not aware he’s a video game character.
- Fish Eyes: His eyes are unfocused.
- Gentle Giant: He’s a humongous mutant, and yet he’s a good son to his father.
- Ret-Gone: Sado deletes him, implicitly erasing him from reality.
- Stone Wall: He’s got a lot of HP, but deals only 4 base damage.
Crypton Aliens
Strange green humanoid beings added by a modder into Waste World. They terrorize the citizens of the wasteland and shoot anyone they come across. They were later made into the main enemies of the Vicious Galaxy series.
- Aliens Are Bastards: They show up, start shooting anyone they come across, and terrorize the people of the wasteland for no apparent reason.
Dustbowl Danny
A boss within Waste World, and the first boss in the Boss Rush Mod. He himself has no attacks, but an army of robots that do the shooting for him.
- An Arm and a Leg: He’s unarmed. His Gunbots, though, not so much.
- Expy: His pince-nez sunglasses, mustache, and reliance on robotic minions call to mind Dr. Eggman.
- Flunky Boss: He has no attacks himself and relies on his bots to do the fighting for him. When you destroy them all, he is rendered defenseless.
- Puzzle Boss: You need to find a way to beat his machines by getting out of their blast range and destroying all of them.
The Vurm
A worm in Waste World transformed by an undetonated nuclear bomb into a giant sapient monstrosity with an equally massive ego. He resides in the nuclear caverns and demands that everyone bow down to him. He is the second opponent of the Boss Rush Mod, in which he has been displaced from his home.
- Atomic Superpower: He creates radiation clouds that poison Rust and Rocky every time his head burrows under.
- Kneel Before Zod: He has an obsession with making everyone bow to him. In Waste World, he tries to get Rust and Rocky to bow and attacks them when they don’t, while in Vicious Galaxy he tries to do the same to Lazarus (but can’t really do anything as he is trapped within a prison cell).
- Large Ham: Subtlety is not in the Vurm’s skillset.
- Puzzle Boss: You need to hit his middle section while avoiding his tail that will One-Hit KO your characters if it reaches them.
Real World Characters (Unmarked Spoilers)
The Creator/Lionel Snill
-
Voiced by: Michael Mola
Lionel Snill, the creator behind each of the patrons of the Six Pint Inn. His Manchild attitude and greed soon destroyed the lives of the games he made, as well as his own reputation. He’s the true «victim» — his «murderer» being Reggie, the very first character Lionel ever made.
- Alas, Poor Villain: Despite ruining the lives of his game characters and mistreating his real-life employees, his death at the hands of Reggie is not meant to be triumphant but is portrayed in a harrowing light, especially since he had no idea of the true extent of his actions and still loved Reggie, to the point of apologizing to him in the secret ending.
- Asshole Victim: Once you get through Walk, increasingly turns out that Lionel has been a complete pain and terror towards everyone nearby and outright abusive towards his creations; all of the characters have ample and justified reason to hate him (with hating him being Sado’s reason for existing) and eventually get the player to help them avenge themselves on him. While he had occasional moments of thoughtfulness or decency, Lionel always defaulted back to being selfish and egotistical at the expense of others. Whether he truly deserved to be killed by Reggie is up for interpretation, but all in all, dude definitely had karma coming his way regardless.
- Big Bad Ensemble: He is the one responsible for ruining the lives and franchises of the characters residing in the Six Pint Inn, and Rootbeer Reggie, the bartender, masterminds much of the events to kill him for it, while Sado is out to destroy his games as she was created to do in retaliation for his bullying of Carla, her creator.
- Child Prodigy: Made Super Weasel Kid at age 12. He was younger when he made Rootbeer Reggie, but hid its existence to make sure he retained the appearance of a prodigy so gifted that his first game had been a hit.
- Connected All Along: It turns out he’s behind the woes of all the patrons of the Six Pint Inn, and that’s what unites them to agree upon killing him. His ego also led to Carla creating Sado (through possibly-satanic means) to get revenge on him.
- Expy: He is this to Davey Wreden’s fictionalized self in The Beginner’s Guide. His game Walk plays just like TBG, complete with developer commentary, and he goes through a similar character arc as Davey- being a pretentious, egotistical jerk who winds up sabotaging his relationship with a fellow game developer who comes to resent him as a result. And like Davey, Lionel ultimately has a Heel Realization, but only when it is too late.
- Fanwork Ban: In-Universe, he really hates the mods created for Waste World, enough to use legal action to deal with them. However, that didn’t stop him from stealing the designs of the aliens in that mod for Vicious Galaxy 2.
- Heel Realization: The secret ending reveals that he’s come to suspect, through rumors, that videogame characters are — in fact — alive. He then apologizes to Reggie, wondering if he’s out there, and then hopes for Reggie to know that Lionel’s sorry. Fat lot of good it does him, as this ends, it’s revealed that Sado is then uploaded, and that by the time you find this, Reggie and the others have already gotten their vengeance for his sins.
- I Let You Win: During the bomb sequence, he makes you do one last coding puzzle… but immediately after that, he admits that he deliberately lowered the difficulty, before sarcastically congratulating you.
- Karmic Death: His death is rather poetic, in a way. Not just in a «creation killing its creator» way, but as the secret ending shows, it’s also the last remnant of Lionel’s grandfather putting an end to the madness of his grandson’s greed. However, it is treated in a tragic light because he still loved Reggie despite everything.
- Manchild: His disinterest in his pets and shame over Rootbeer Reggie can be somewhat justified by his young age, but his childishness only gets worse — it culminates with him defrauding his company’s severance money to run away to the other end of the country after Legendaria bombs.
- Mean Boss: If the comments left by Carla in Legendaria are any indication, he did things like remove a feature she worked for months on (the fishing minigame) and would bully her while refusing to listen to her advice on how to make the game more enjoyable for players. He also overspent on experts and overworked his existing employees to complete Secrets of Legendaria. Then, when the game failed, he stole money from their severance packages and left them hanging out to dry.
- Never My Fault: His commentary in Walk shows that this is his attitude towards his career’s decline- he blames the players for being stupid and making so many demands, blames Carla for intentionally making glitches to sabotage Legendaria, and blames the modders of Waste World for turning it into a �mockery�. But he never takes responsibility for his own decisions like defrauding employees or bullying Carla. He does apologize to Reggie in the secret ending, for burying him to make himself look better to the public.
- Non-Action Big Bad: His decisions against the characters on his behalf are carried out by Irving. While smug, selfish and self-centered, he is just a programmer, and is ultimately unable to defend himself when Reggie reaches out to kill him.
- Small Name, Big Ego: His commentary in Walk shows that Lionel has an extremely high opinion of himself, as well as his talent as a programmer. It gets worse during the Waste World segment, where Lionel gets pissed talking about modders who tried to use his unfinished game, goes into such a venomous rant that Jeremiah has to skip that section, and he’s still ranting in Vicious Galaxy.
- Walking Spoiler: His very existence is a spoiler in all forms: he’s the overarching figure tying all these games together, his death is the actual murder the very beginning of the game warns about, and his actions lead to Sado’s creation.
Carla Dosa
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«I can’t believe my FRIEND Lionel made this game! He’s the best!»
Once a friend of Lionel, the latter’s ego soon caused their friendship to deteriorate. As revenge for his wrongs, she created Sado, a satanic virus that would attack and ruin his work.
- Animal Motifs: Associated with rubber ducks. Sado’s appearances in Combat Arena X, Waste World and Vicious Galaxy have a rubber duck appear, and Carla kept a rubber duck on her desk as seen in Walk.
- Childhood Friend: Lionel refers to her as such during Walk.
- Expy: To Coda from The Beginner’s Guide— a mysterious, unseen developer who was a friend of the narrator, only to leave him because of his destructive behavior.
- The Ghost: She’s only mentioned by Lionel during the Walk section, though her reviews for the Super Weasel Kid games can be found in that section as well.
- Revenge: She created Sado for this very purpose, after Lionel pushed her too far.
- We Used to Be Friends: Lionel and Carla’s friendship deteriorated as Lionel�s ego grew. Strangely enough, she still agrees to post his final message in the secret ending, before immediately afterwards Sado is uploaded.
- Walking Spoiler: She is only directly mentioned in the Walk section; however, comments from her appear earlier in the individual games, and her role in the game is ultimately related to the mention of her slowly eroding friendship with Lionel.
GameFuna (Unmarked Inscryption Spoilers)
An enigmatic video game company which Lionel sold Super Weasel Kid and Combat Arena X to. Ever since then, he’s had their help in developing every one of his games. Unfortunately, they have a reputation for developing horrible, buggy games. They are also the in-universe creators of Inscryption, with Kaycee Hobbes being one of the main developers. And they do not want Luke Carder looking into their games.
- All for Nothing: GameFuna’s attempts to keep the OLD_DATA from getting out are ultimately futile. P03 had survived in the ARG’s ending and completed uploading Inscryption to the internet, where millions of people will have their copies of the game and, in turn, the OLD_DATA. Considering once something goes on the internet, it never goes away, GameFuna failed big time.
- Bad Boss: If what happened to Kaycee was any indication.
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: The aggressive behavior of GameFuna hinted there was more going on than a game company making bad games and looking for its lost data, and killing Luke proved it. The Hex heavily implies that they are none other than SystemTech/SatanTech from Pony Island, and the Inscryption ARG went further by revealing the company was also a government front. The Inscryption video game was a cover for decrypting the OLD_DATA recovered from Hitler’s corpse. Many of the developers, such as Kaycee, were unaware of the company’s true nature.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The intrusive video game company that created mysterious games which has sentient characters in it, holds a Negative Space Wedgie inside of its files, are implied to be connected to both a Government Conspiracy and Satan, and are confirmed murderers of two people, have the pretty non-threatening name «GameFuna».
- The Ghost: They are never encountered in person, only their representative named Amanda.
- Greater-Scope Villain: They are responsible for Super Weasel Kid ’09 bombing so hard, an action that led Lionel Snill down his dark path and led Rootbeer Reggie to recruit his victims for his revenge plot. It is also hinted that The Gameworks is their creation, meaning the event that led Rootbeer Reggie down his path of villainy was their fault. Also, they are indicated to be a demonic front who Carla Dosa contacted to create Sado. And they created Inscryption, with everything wrong in that game coming from their experiments with the dangerous OLD_DATA.
- Immediate Self-Contradiction: The GameFuna rep who calls Luke clearly states that the company never developed an Inscryption game. They then immediately state that Luke must return the Inscryption disc as it is GameFuna property.
- Incompetence, Inc.: They’re apparently infamous for developing unfinished and buggy games, one of the primary examples being their reboot of Super Weasel Kid titled Super Weasel Kid ’09: Super Redux, which had lots of glitches such as unpoppable bubbles, enemies that instantly respawn when dying, and buggy clouds that have misplaced faces and simply laugh on loop when jumped on, among many other things, which led to the game being bombed by negative reviews. And some reviews imply that it’s not the first time they released the poorly-made games like this.
Negative Steam review: So Lionel sold the rights of SWK to GameFuna…and you’re all surprised that it’s shit?
«Positive» Steam review: GameFuna, INFAMOUS for horrible ports and remasters, has done it again. When will the developer community stop giving them money. - Karma Houdini: So far, their actions have gone unpunished by the end of the game.
- Mouth of Sauron: The woman who visits Luke’s house is this for them, giving him her company’s card and essentially stating that he needs to return the Inscryption game to them immediately if he happens to own it. The fact her «visit» involved her blatantly breaking through a fence before entering his terrain without any permission from him also serves as Foreshadowing to them being far more malicious (And aware of what’s happening in Inscryption) than they might seem at first.
- Walking Spoiler: At first, the company is merely contacted by Luke in order to see if the video game he found is authentic. It then becomes directly involved, including a very major role in the ending.
Louis Natas (Unmarked Inscryption Spoilers)
The CEO of GameFuna.
- The Ghost: We never do see him in person in either The Hex or Inscryption.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Everything his company did that set up the plot of both The Hex and Inscryption can be tied back to him.
- Hijacked by Ganon: It is hinted by his name and some Easter Eggs that he is none other than Satan, the Big Bad of Pony Island who is still developing crappy bugged games and creating demonic entities to torment people. While not directly involved, he is the Greater-Scope Villain who’s actions enabled the Big Bad Ensemble of both The Hex and Inscryption.
- Louis Cypher: According to The Hex, the name of their CEO is apparently Lou Natas, which raises a few questions…
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Assuming they are the same person, Lucifer in Pony Island was mainly an Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain who just wanted people to like his games and had to resort to stealing their souls to force them to play his crappy Obvious Betas, with much of the humor deriving from his incompetence at coding and game design. While he hasn’t gotten much better at programming, Lou Natas is a far more sinister figure with ties to a Government Conspiracy and access to a superweapon that can destroy half of Europe, and his actions are far more successful in ruining the lives of people like Lionel Snill and his game characters- by the end of Inscryption, he’s had two people killed.
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